With the two A.I. programs watching you from behind, you examine the doors with the heiroglyphics on them.  There are twenty such doors total in the T-sectioned hall.  You see the following heiroglyphics.



For ease of posting, you can refer to these by Column A or B, and (going down), symbols 1 through 11.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:52, Thu 17 Feb 2005.

Screed looks stumped.  "Well, does anyone ahve any ideas?  Anyone read hero...hayro... ancient egytpian?  We could always just count down the doors.  That would make, ummm, that one 'H', the Hoot Owl, I guess."

::looks at it::

The symbol of Ra, is a circle, with rays coming from it....but I don't see any symbol that strikes me as being RA....

Demian reaches the end of the hallway where the service elevator is, having quickly examined each door. He turns to the others with a look of resignation. "I knew this was going too smoothly."

"We've already passed Ra, Daredevil. We're supposed to be looking for an 'H' now...that is if we are right about the meaning of the riddle."

Wandering back down the hallway, "If anyone comes up with a good idea, let me know. I'll be in the restroom taking a leak." And with that, Demian enters the lavatory.

::considers::

Could H mean Horus, I do see a symbol of Horus there?

Screed snickers, "Well, we're in the one city where they made Horus legal then.  Which one is it?"

::points to the hawk looking one::

If I remember my Egyption mythology correctkly, the hawk is the symbol that represents...

"Well, that's two votes for the transpecied Hoot Owl Hawk then."

"I can't hear what's going on," X says, "but those two people you are talking to are programs of some sort."  His voice is crackling over the radio, barely audible.  "They're written kind of strangely.  Not sure what it means though."

"Back in the day," Methuselah points out, "tourists in Egypt could buy cartouches with their names in Egyptian characters.  Somehow the hieroglyphics were mapped onto Arabic characters.  I don't know how standardized the mapping was, but perhaps one of these is 'H'.  But whether we push it like a button or what is still a mystery."

"Well, they're doors, so they have to open, one would think."  Screed walks up to the Hooty Owl Horus door (A8) and examines it.  He then reaches to open it.

Pause in posting for reactions of others, i.e. cheers, flying tackles, feigned disinterest.

::watches Screed but isn't planning on stopping him::

Assuming that he finds nothing of interest in the lavatory (it’s not often that you actually want to find something interesting in the lavatory), Demian walks back out, cell-phone in hand.

“Maybe X can look up some information on the hieroglyphs that’ll point us to the right one.”

Unless someone stops him, Demian hits the button that pops open the phone with a ‘click’ and does speed dial to get their operator.

“Screed, Wait!” Demian shouts when he notices the impatient one reaching for the door. “Let’s not get hasty here. If you are wrong, then opening that door may be the last thing that you do.”

Screed shrugs and answers back, "But do we really need to call?  That's definitely going to bring agents.  We can always just head upstairs to our room and get the translations of the net.  I'm sure they have in-room access."  He absentmindedly rubs his stomach as he stands by the door talking.

Screed's warning is a bit late, as the speed dialer has already gone through.

"Operator," X says, answering at the other end.  "I can't hear what's going on, but I see those symbols.  I hope this is an emergency.  I think your call has just alerted Zero-One."

Demian looks up at the others with a sheepish look on his face and shrugs.

“Well then, X, let’s make this quick. We’re hoping you can look up for us which one of these hieroglyphics is associated with the letter ‘H’.”

As you explain what you need exactly, X says, "You'll have to give me just a minute on this."

You sit and wait.  It seems like an eternity is passing even though it is less than a minute...

In a hushed voice, Screed reacts, "Oh drat!"   His senses go all out as he starts trying to look in all directions at once.

Demian glances at Screed and then reaches into his jacket with his left hand, his right still holding the dangerously silent phone to his ear. He slides a glock out of his jacket, letting it fall to his side...unthreatening, but ready.

"I don't know how long it might take the machines to trace this call, but we might want to be on the lookout."

After a long pause, X gets back on the line.  "Okay, I've compared the diagrams with common translations.  I'm going to upload the information to your cell phone screen."

Looking down at the cell phone, Demian sees the following pop up:
http://pages.tca.net/steveb/hiero.html

Demian looks at his cell phone screen, scrolling quickly. He grins as he brings the phone back up to his ear. “You’re a lifesaver, X.”

Slapping his phone closed, Demian points towards the door with the spiral glyph (A11). “This is it.”

He stands by the door, waiting for the others to prepare for the entry.

Jade unzips her bag and pulls out her machine gun and other equipment, preparing herself.  "Let's do it," she says, standing at the door and waiting for the others.

Screed, looking quite nervous, walks up to the door and does a cursory exmination.  He finally says, "It looks clean.  Is everyone ready?"  He gets ready to open the door.

 Fault reaches into his sweat-shirt and pulls out his iron-knuckles. "Onward to the Valley of the Would-Be-God!"

Methuselah nods and moves towards the indicated glyph.  "Good work, but let's try to rely on our own resources a bit more.  We're probably better able to handle this than you think, as long as we keep Zero-One in the dark."

::nods::

Let's get a move on, I'm sure our phone call caught some attention....

Demian rolls his eyes at the perceived slant from Methuselah, but otherwise seems unfazed by the number of negative comments coming his way about the phone call.

Having a hand free, now that his cell phone was put away, Demian reaches into his jacket again and draws out his other pistol. With one in each hand, he looks prepared for trouble.

With a head nod to the door handle, and a sideways glance at the 'married couple',  “Screed, do the honors?”

Demian will cover Screed as best he can.

Screed does the honors.

Screed opens the door...

You all wait expectantly...

It swings open slowly, revealing darkness within...

And then...

The light from the hallway rushes in and shows that beyond the door...

...as far as you can see...

it is nothing more than a messy locker area, perhaps only 10' x 8'.  There is a small desk and chair, very old and worn.  A posterboard with some things tacked to it, and a set of five large lockers, 7' high by 18" wide, numbered 1 through 5.  They all appear to be locked with combination locks.  There is also a set of cleaning supplies, including a mob, a bucket, and cleaners, and an old janitorial uniform.  There is a large tub trash can on wheels, some hotel towels thrown on the floor, and some other junk cluttering the room.

Screed glances over at the watchers to see if they are laughing.

Jade steps in.  "Do you think we were mistaken?  Or are we missing something here?"

Screed heads over to locker number two and starts playing with the combination lock while everyone else hashes things out.  He puts his ear to the door and starts twirling the dial, stopping, and spinning it in the other direction.  Finally his face lights up as he steps back and pops the handle to open the door.

Screed successfully picks the lock.  The door opens, revealing...

...a smelly gym towel, a janitor's one piece outfit, and some grungy shoes, as well as the latest copy of Sports Illustrated.

::looks around::

Well...this is....funny and disturbing all at the same time....

 "I've got it," Fault says, stepping into the locker-room. He points to the back wall, and grins manically. "The fortress' entrance is hidden behind that wall. All we have to do is get through.
 "Now, this worked once before..." he says, backing up slightly and dropping into a runner's crouch. With little warning he breaks into a run,  charging directly for the back wall of the room.

Methuselah's brow furrows in thought, "Although, if we find enough janitorial uniforms, we can dump our heavy artillery into that rolling trashcan and walk all over this place, ignored by the powers-that-be.  Maybe that's what we're supposed to find here, now that we've found 'H'."

Demian puts his pistols back into their holsters, hidden inside his jacket. He frowns at the janitor’s closet, and even more so at the actions and words of the others. “Yeah, Meth, let’s just get rid of all of our protection and see if the agents just assign us to clean the bathrooms,” Demian says sarcastically while looking at the door.

He glances down the hallway to see what the "married couple" is doing, then turns his attention back to the door.

Demian reaches up and touches the hieroglyphic spiral on the door...and waits expectantly. If nothing happens, he’ll try pushing it...then pulling on it...then rotating it clockwise...then counter clockwise...

Screed reaches up and picks up the magazine.  He says as ge starts thumbing through looking at the pictures, "Maybe there's a different 'H'."

Jade takes a look at what is posted on the board.

Methuselah accepts Demian's barb without comment.  Instead, he moves into the small closet and begins rummaging.  As he passes by Screed, he glances across at the magazine.  "I don't suppose that's the swimsuit issue?  Pity," he says as he shakes his head.  "I guess we can hope that one day humanity will again achieve such levels of civilization again, can't we?"

On the board, Jade finds that a clipping from Sports Illustrated and a partially filled out crossword puzzle are posted there.  Methusalah finds nothing new except that a part of the Sports Illustrated Magazine has been cut out, a small portion relating to stats.

Methuselah points out the missing section of the magazine.  "You can't tell me someone would bother to program in a ripped periodical unless it was important."  Looking closer, he shakes his head in frustration,  "Shit!  I used to follow this stuff.  I could tell you everything that happened in each inning of a baseball game just from looking at the box scores.  But that was a lifetime ago."  Still, he does glance carefully, trying to determine which stats have been lifted from the magazine.

"That's the great thing about an artificial reality with both real and artificial intelligences in it, Meth. Nobody has to program little details like those clipped stats. The stats get torn out of the book by an intelligence interacting with the artificial reality as a janitor that wants to remember a few stats to spout off to his buddies."

PM

Jade checks to see if the clipping matches the missing part of Meth's magazine.  She looks at the figures and at the crossword puzzle.

::standing there quietly, waiting for the group to make their next decision::

Demian pounds the hieroglyph in frustration and turns away from the room. He again opens his cell phone, but only to scroll back through the information that X had sent him.

“I knew this was going too smoothly,” Demian says with a huff.

Glancing both ways down the hallway, Demian’s attention returns to the hieroglyph. “This is it,” he says, putting away his cell phone. “Did we miss something in the riddle?” he asks nobody in particular.

Screed speaks up as he hands the magazine over to Methuselah, "Here.  I wasn't really trying to find anything."  He moves to locker 4 and starts the same routine.  "I just thought as long as the door was open I might as well look in these.  Shouldn't we try one of those other 'H' doors?"  His eyes light up as he is able to pop the lock on another locker.  He starts rifling through the contents, picking things up that aren't too dirty and playing with them a little.

Screed begins turning the lock on locker 4.  After his first reverse on the combination, a shock hits him from the lock, jolting him back and away from the lock, his fingers scorching. (1 HT dmg)

"Oh, ouch!  That hurt!  Who puts a trap on a locker?" Screed glances around wondering at the strange things going on.  Then he bends closer and exmaines the locker a little more cautiously before proceeding again.

PM

Screed continues to work at the locker.

In working at the locker, Screed gets shocked again.  (1 HT dmg).  He steps back, his fingers curled and in pain.

Screed jumps up and down in pain shaking his hand again. "Ouch! Dang!  Blasted!  Friggin!" He blows on his fingers and says, "That hurts.  I think we may have found something.  I was playing with the poem earlier wondering if there were numbers imbedded in it.  It looked mostly like Binary but it ended with a two.  So now, it looks like it might be a lock combination.  There is something going on with this.  There is not trap.  There is nothing to shock me that I can see, but it is doing it. There's a glitch here somewhere."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:13, Fri 25 Feb 2005.

PM

Screed recites, "In heaven abides one, And in hell one too. He has one also, And though there’s none in eternity, In hypothesis there’s two.  Let's see, that's 1-12-1-0-2.  No that doesn't make any sense."  He pops his fist on the locker in frustration.  "Anyone have any gloves?"  He looks around for something that could block the shocks.  "And does anyone else want to try this?"  He is still blowing on his fingers as they look a little blackened now.

::searchers an open locker for a wire hanger::

Demian looks back towards the room, seemingly shocked that there was actually something of interest there. He works his way through the others in the room to pat Screed on the shoulder.

“The pain just lets you know you are alive,” Demian preaches. “Besides, if you didn’t like it the first time, why’d you touch it again?” he says in a playful tone.

“Let’s first see if this is the only locker with that nasty surprise. Is there anything in the riddle about the number four, for locker number four?” Demian starts spinning the combinations on each of the other lockers, first clockwise, then counter clockwise, then on to the next…unless he gets shocked.

Demian spins the lock on locker 1 and finds himself shocked just like Screed.  (1 HT pt).

Jade checks and the cut out portion does match Meth's magazine.

Due to time issues, I will let you know exactly what is on the cutout and crossword puzzle when I get a few moments of time.

::sees Demian gets shocked by another lock and takes out his Glock and screws on the silencer::

If stealth is stopped by brute force, i guess we will have to respond in kind....

::pauses to get reactions::

"I did it once with no problems, why can't I now?"  He picks up the dirty gym socks and puts them on like mittems.  He then looks around some more.

Demian pulls his hand back and balls it into a fist, squeezing. “That felt good,” he says softly...without the expected hint of sarcasm. Still, he stops his short lived experiment.

“So, locker number 4 isn’t so special. Maybe it is locker number 2, the one that opened, that is special. Why’d you start with locker 2?” Demian asks Screed.

Seeing Daredevil’s plan, Demian just shrugs and steps away from the lockers.

Arrgh, lost a whole post. A large one.

"I don't know.  The poem was getting to me, especially the number two at the end, so I chose this one.  Maybe the order of opening them is the way.  We need more information.  There is definitely something protecting these, but why?  These obviously can't be being used.  Someone would be bound to make a mistake and get shocked.  Unless...  Unless we triggered something."  Screed tries to find names on the lockers or anything that would give an alternate order than the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 that is oviously not it.

If Daredevil starts aiming at one, Screed will move to the other end and cover his ears.

"Maybe you have to close the one that is already opened, before you can open another?" Demian ponders out loud.

::grins::

If you have a good idea, I won't shoot, it's when we are out of options that I will open fire...

The two AI programs are at the door watching you curiously.

You look at the crossword puzzle and cutout with the stats.  They look like this:

New Draft Stats
	Name		      	Handed	Draft Pick  		Date
1.	William Traynor…	Left	Second Round		May 29, 2005
2.	Freddie Ames		Right	First Round		May 12, 2005
3.	Hank Theron		Right	Third Round		June  23, 2005
4.	Aaron West		Left	Second Round		June  6, 2005
5.	Sigmund Floyd	        Right	Third Round		June 30, 2005
6.	Michael Snider	        Right	First Round		May 14, 2005
7.	Thesmond Thatcher	Left	Second Round		May 21, 2005
8.	Ronald Fless		Right	First Round		May 2, 2005
9.	James Bronson	        Right	Third Round		June 18, 2005
10.	Reginald Fernandez	Left	Second Round		June 1, 2005

Crossword has filled out:
5 Down:         Father of psychoanalysis.  “freud”
4 Across:	____ blind mice.  “three”
8 Across:	The Spanish word for day.  “dia”

Screed thinks back.

PM

Methuselah waves his hands dismissively at the displayed gun.  "Okay, hold the fireworks for just a bit.  And let's not manhandle any more lockers until we've exhausted our options.  There's something strange about the names on the stat sheet.  Hank Theron?  One of the contemporary home run kings was Hank Aaron.  But Aaron shows up in the next name, and as the first name at that.  So does 'Theron West' mean anything?  Should we be going west, in some fashion?

"And then there's Sigmund Floyd.  Sounds just like Sigmund Freud, if introduced by someone with a bad cold.  I don't have any wild theories on that one either, but it's still odd.

"Finally, there's the choice of stats: right, third round, left, second round.  Sounds suspiciously like a lock combination embedded within these stats.  Especially considering that all the second round picks were southpaws, and vice versa.  So 'right' plus 'first', and maybe one of the dates: 12, 14 or 2.  Then 'left' plus 'second' gives you 29, 6, 21 or 1.  Which leaves 'right' 'third' with 23, 30 or 18.  So one of these locks, we spin to the right first, then to the left, and back to the right, one of these combinations.

"Of course, Damien could point out that some program just randomly put these names and stats together, but I'm not the one grasping his fingers in pain."  And Methuselah's eyes shine in amusement, although he does refrain from smiling.

Finally stopping the massaging of his fingers, Screed pipes in again, "Yes, I was wondering something like that myself.  Especially with the psycho's name appearing in the puzzle also."

He smirks and continues, "It all seems very logical and neat.  The only problem is the key doesn't fit it."

Screed nods at the open locker, "That combination was 15, 12, and 27, and with no combinations and permutations could I come up with those in there. Buuut, it does seem too neat.  I'm about ready to give it a go again if you have any ideas."

Methuselah nods, "Okay, that's a good point.  But maybe the stats give us a combination that opens the locker in another way."  And he wanders over to the open locker to see if it is possible to remove everything (clothes, junk, shelves) out of the locker.  "Seven feet high, a foot and a half across.  It'd be snug, but one could keep a body in there."

Intrigued, Screed says, "Oh, really?  I was wondering if it was some kind of power conduit or something.  Maybe it's a program conduit!"  He bounces over and into the locker.  He tries to reach out to close the door.

"I think it's a door," Jade says.  "I'm also wondering what the crossword puzzle answers mean.  Why the 3?"

Snow turns to the AI programs,

Any clue about this?

They respond, "We cannot interfere."

Methesulah, still studying the clippings, barely moves his head when he hears the answer from the programs outside.  "Oh, they're still tagging along?" he asks disdainfully.  Returning to the clippings, he wonders aloud, "Three clues filled in, with three numbers in your standard combination.  Sigmund Floyd could be one third of the combo as he's almost the answer in one clue.  Since another clue asks for a word in Spanish, and Rodriguiez is the only Spanish name in the list, his date could also be part of the combo.  But what of 'three' as a clue?  Name #3 duplicates part of the combo, as does the name that starts with 'th' for both the first and last names."  With a soft sigh, he asks quietly, probably rhetorically, "Are we sure this guy wants us to find him?"

::takes a peek at the puzzle and figured it out::

The combo is 30 right 3x, 6 left twice, 2 right once, the clue was the numbers of the clue, they clued you into the right combo without looking too deep into it....
This message was last edited by the player at 16:21, Mon 28 Feb 2005.

Jade says, "I'm thinking that one of the numbers must point us to the right locker.  How do we know we have the right one?  But go ahead and try your numbers.  Worst that can happen is you get a little buzz, right?"  She smiles at Daredevil and points toward the locker.

::carefully approaches each lock as if he is testing it depending on what he feels depends on whether he touches the lock or not::

PM

"See, perfectly sound and in retrospect a bit obvious.  Hopefully this combo will bring us closer, although we're moving beyond the scope of the original clue," Methuselah ponders as he looks back at the two virtual vagabonds.  "So, do you pepper us with confounding riddles after this point, or will they be lying around conspicuously?" he asks in their general direction.

::looks around the room::

Well there are only two number combos in the riddle that make sense, 3 clues filled in maybe locker 3, all the dates end in 2005, so the 5th locker, the months on the clues are may and june, so they don't jive, anyone else got anything to add before I probably zap myself on either lockers 3 or 5....

Jade says, "I would go with locker 3 since it is a number specifically mentioned.  Locker 5 requires a bit too much reading into it.  I just hope your numbers are right."

::nods::

If the numbers aren't right we have a problem since the clue wouldn't be a clue we can understand, it's the locker I'm worried about...

::tries the combination abouve to locker 3::

Jade says, "Wait.  A typical combination lock has three turns to it.  You turn the first number to the right, the second to the left, and the third to the right again.  Maybe that's what it means with the rounds they were drafted in.  So 30 would be your third turn to the right.  So we look at the 'day' of the draft as the numbers you turn to, their handedness, right or left, as the direction of the turn, and the round they were drafted in as what order you turn the dial.

So it should be:

Right to 2,
Left to 6,
Right to 30.

Why don't you try that on locker 3?"

::draws his hands back::

When I was in school, my combinations was 3 turns to the right, then two to the left, then back to the right. So it would be three times right to 30, two times left to 6, one time right to 2. Am I mistaken?

Methuselah looks slightly embarassed, "Hmm, yes, I completely left out the point about multiple yet decreasing passes over each number when I spoke earlier.  A critical omission, I'm afraid.  Must be my age catching up to me.  Yes, Daredevil, I believe you have the essence of legitimate combination lock use so try away."

::smiles::

Well here goes nothing...

::does the combination above to locker #3::

Demian remains quiet during the discussion of Daredevil's deduction. Instead, he keeps an eye on the two programs.

Daredevil turns three times right to thirty, but he gets jolted.  (1 HT dmg).

"I guess I'll try it my way," Jade says.  "I sure hope I don't get shocked."  She starts to turn the dial on locker 3...

::knows he has the right combination tries is on Locker #5::

Screed stands inside the locker.  He pulls the door closed, but not shut for the latch to catch and just listens.

Daredevil begins his combination on locker 5 and Jade begins on locker 3.

Daredevil once again gets himself shocked.  (1 HT dmg)

Screed steps into the open locker and listens.  It is silent.  Very silent.

Jade turns, finds no resistance, turns again...no resistance...and then hits the final number and lifts the handle.  The door to locker number 3 slides open, revealing something unbelievable within...